Well Written LGBT+ Characters - Who is/what makes a well written homosexual?

[Queen Elizabeth II]

If your media has any gay characters, it's shit.

I haven't found a depiction of gay relationships in a mainstream show I haven't found a bit cringey tbh. With very few examples, the inclusion of a gay character is just for the sake of it. We are a minority, and there's nothing wrong with the cast representing the main bulk of the population who probably aren't gay.

I don't really know most of the examples listed here, but from the ones I've come across being gay usually doesn't really add anything other than controversy/oppresion points and the story could have worked just as well with a straight character (Voltron) or they're J. K Rowling-esque retcons.

That and they try too hard idealizing them as something that belongs in Stepford fantasies.

 

[Judge Holden]

Watching Meduka is suffering

 

[Judge Holden]

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Stephanie is an incredibly likable character. She's funny, witty and kind, and the episode that brings up her sexuality is very well-done (though that can be said for every season 3 episode). I love her relationship with Orel and her relationship with her father.

Meanwhile Clay is a very unlikeable person, but he's fleshed out. He's abusive, selfish, misogynistic and bitter, and we get to see how he became that way. The narrative doesn't excuse him, but explains. There's nothing wrong with having 'bad' gay characters, just so long as you don't make a correlation between a character being gay and a character being evil.

Glad as fuck im not the only Moral Orel fansperg in this shitpile of a forum.

 

[HeraldofNurgle]

Deadpool all the way. It feels very organic with him, not forced. He just does whatever he wants.

 

[TheCapybara]

It's already been more or less said, but all it really comes down to, in my opinion at least, is them possessing traits that make them interesting and worthy of notice outside of their being gay. As long as the fact that they're gay isn't the central, be all end all defining characteristic of them, then that's doing it right, though the same could be said of any character of any sexual orientation, really. Their sexuality doesn't have to be an afterthought or anything like that, although that way of representing it is fine as well, it just has to be one of many varying traits that when combined make a complex, interesting character.

 

[Creep3r]

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Deadpool all the way. It feels very organic with him, not forced. He just does whatever he wants.

I think the old comics handled his insanity and sex life (and the rest of his character) better than (probably gonna get some dislikes for this) the live action films and the newer comics which just feel like a step down for his character with characteristics that now felt forced by writers who simply skimmed through the older comics, with the only new media that's enjoyable for me having been "Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe" (and its sequel) along with the Deadpool game. Anyway, it felt like you never truly understood what was real and what wasn't when it came to Deadpool's behavior so it never came off as forced but worked perfectly for his kind of character back then, and the fact that he was a Deathstroke knockoff that was able to grow to become his own notable thing because of it says a lot for such a character.

Spoiler

Only media that ever did fag characters right for me were animes, with the only notable western media that did it right being Fallout: New Vegas (although there was almost nothing that game could do wrong even when limited by Fallout 3 which was really freaking impressive), The Maltese Falcon and a few RP games.

 

[IslamicContentental Belt]

Six Feet Under had deep, well written gay characters that were relatable to anyone. I’m really surprised Michael C. Hall is so well known for Dexter which was only good for a couple seasons more than his virtuoso performance as David Fisher.

 

[GethN7]

Erica Anderson from Catherine is a pretty well written trans woman character, I'd say. She's criticized for not telling Toby she's a trans woman but honestly she didn't have to. He'd never have known had people that knew her before not told him and would have been perfectly fine sleeping with her, a woman fully transitioned and had surgery. She passes well and is clearly happy with herself by the events of the game.

She's smart, sweet, and offers the group much needed advice on the happenings of the game. I personally found her prescence refreshing after having to listen to Vincent gripe about how cheating is SO hard to do and feel good about.

Her first major conversation with the cast has her even calling Vincent out on his disloyalty and basically telling him to quit bitching and make it right.

The game also never rammed the information in your face nor made the "reveal" overly ridiculous.

 

[admiral]

The main issue I have with a lot of LGBT characters in modern literature, even media set pre 1960s, is that they can get real preachy and gratuitous. In older depictions the homosexuality of a character might be implied or apparent, but there'll be less... wallowing for lack of a better term, because there'd be the fear that they would be censored. In that vein characters from Christopher Isherwood's novels, The picture of Dorian Grey and other such works are pretty good examples of a well-written LGBT experience.
Maybe the persecution of homosexuals at that time hd something to do with it- being gay was an actual plot point them, in the liberal North of American these days being gay isn't really anything to write home about. In these older books the characters are subtler- you can tell that they have secrets that even you, the reader, are not privy to. In newer fiction I can't help but feel that LGBT characters are just there to tick off a box or show how cool and progressive the author is. Like maybe 50 yers ago 'Gay' could be a character trait, but these days if a character is defined by their sexuality, outside of a novel about the issues of homosexuality (a period drama or a coming-out story), it just comes across as lazy.

 

[Guts Gets Some]

I just remembered a character from a favorite anime, Speed Grapher.
"Bob", a black man living in Japan who runs a massage business (seems legit massage too, as he's shown giving a straight older businessman one, and even playfully comments on how often he must get laid to be so tied up).

He's the main character Saiga's only real 'friend', and even though he playfully flirts with him (with Saiga turning him down the same way "Sorry, Bob, gay marriage ain't legal in Japan"), he always is there to help out and be of assistance to Saiga, physically or even emotionally, as the only real ally he can turn to.

Bob is a minor character, but he is an interesting portrayal of a gay character, because it's not hammed up, not preachy, not even center stage. He just.... is. Pretty true to life if you know gay people.
You can 'tell', and some are more flirty than others, but overall they're still just people too.

 

[SuperSheep]

I like Commander Shepard.

I've never played Commander Shepard in a homosexual/bisexual romance option, but I appreciate that it's there for those that do and I like being an unstoppable badass that even ancient giant evil robotic cuttlefish aliens stop and take notice of.

 

[firestoopscience]

Essentially whenever a character functions as a normal person without their homosexuality blotting our other aspects of their personality, they become more intriguing.

I’m really fond of Chanterelle and Alice from the podcast “Alice isn’t Dead”, they’re literally just two people trying to live normal lives in the face of terrifying supernatural circumstances.

The story is a bit preachy but the ladies are written well and avoid blatant stereotypes. It’s a big step up from Cecil and Carlos from Welcome to NightVale (they’re both authored by Joseph Fink). As much as I enjoyed the latter, the pandering was obvious and it took away from the believability of the characters.

Surprised to see a Night Vale fan here. Personally I thought Carlos and Cecil would have been a pretty GOOD couple if they just let them get genuine flaws and have them actually be separate characters in love rather than stick together with not a lotta problems because queer representation calls for it. Plus unless you read "It Devours" they genuinely didn't give Carlos his own agency aside from being Cecil's love interest.

Also points for not revealing The Driver's real name I want to like AiD, but iunno the voice just sounds pretty monotonous for me.

 

[A single cheeto]

Would Alec and Maurice from Maurice count? I thought they were both well written.

 

[Amber the Hedgehog]

I actually kinda liked how Pearl was written in Steven Universe before it went all “lesbians here, lesbians there, lesbians absolutely everywhere!” When the show portrayed Pearl and Rose as close friends but Pearl maybe having had deeper feelings to Rose and that’s why she is having conflicting feelings towards Steven. Generally lovingly taking care of him, trying her best be there for him and being the closest thing to a mother in Steven life but also feeling somewhat resentful about loosing Rose and really not done with grieving. I liked it because it was natural conflict with no real bad guy. To me that Pearl’s hinted one sided romance worked because it explained why she had so hard time getting over the whole ordeal. Watching your secret love getting into relationship that ended up killing her is multiple levels of hard to deal feelings even without ending up raising the child from that. No wonder Pearl doesn’t have the greatest picture of humanity. Plus this being mostly hinted rather than outright said worked too because Pearl came across as fairly private individual, control freak who would not like to share her insecurities and who fully realized that her feelings aren’t Steven fault as such would not like to burden him with them.

 

[PorcupineTree]

Surprised to see a Night Vale fan here.

When Night Vale was at its peak, I had a passion for it that made me ashamed. I dropped out of the loop sometime after the Desert Bluffs story arc.

I felt the same way about Alice isn’t Dead once the story started to conclude. I like the bored, conversational tone of the voice actor, but it didn’t work for the dramatic scenes.

I actually kinda liked how Pearl was written in Steven Universe before it went all “lesbians here, lesbians there, lesbians absolutely everywhere!” When the show portrayed Pearl and Rose as close friends but Pearl maybe having had deeper feelings to Rose and that’s why she is having conflicting feelings towards Steven. Generally lovingly taking care of him, trying her best be there for him and being the closest thing to a mother in Steven life but also feeling somewhat resentful about loosing Rose and really not done with grieving. I liked it because it was natural conflict with no real bad guy. To me that Pearl’s hinted one sided romance worked because it explained why she had so hard time getting over the whole ordeal. Watching your secret love getting into relationship that ended up killing her is multiple levels of hard to deal feelings even without ending up raising the child from that. No wonder Pearl doesn’t have the greatest picture of humanity. Plus this being mostly hinted rather than outright said worked too because Pearl came across as fairly private individual, control freak who would not like to share her insecurities and who fully realized that her feelings aren’t Steven fault as such would not like to burden him with them.

Rose and Pearl are the one relationship I dislike tbh, aside from that bullshit polyamorous gem. It just seemed like Rose was taking advantage of Pearl’s lack of self respect. Garnet is the real mvp.

Quite frankly though, SU appeals to me more for its wholesomeness. The whole dynamic of clueless, effeminate aliens trying their best to mother a human child is amusing to me. They’re incompetent, but they try so hard because they love their son. It’s nice to be immersed in a story that revolves around feelings like that.

 

[Xerxes IX]

I liked how the gay danganronpa characters were written (although the fandom would like you to believe Tenko and Kokichi spend all their time trying to out-I'M GAY SonicFox, and it's only them moreso than any other characters because they're from the newest game) because it wasn't their entire character, but affected their actions and motivations. It's probably more to due with it being a murder mystery based series but that's how a character being gay should be written.

 

[Red Hood]

I'd like to see more lgbt characters that are more luke my friends in life that fall on that spectrum: just normal people. A friend of mine introduced me to his boyfriend at one point and it's just another person to meet and another facet of their life. Neither one of them feels the need to introduce themselves like "I'm Charles and I AM ALL ABOUT THE DICKS". Which is a tendency badly written fictional characters have- they have one or two aspects that in real life would be facets that are blown up into being the character's defining trait.

 

[Dolphin Lundgren]

Reaver from the Fable games instantly comes to my mind.

This is obviously why they made Reaver bisexual.

 

[Slap47]

Rose and Pearl are the one relationship I dislike tbh, aside from that bullshit polyamorous gem. It just seemed like Rose was taking advantage of Pearl’s lack of self respect. Garnet is the real mvp.

Because she was. She exploited people to escape responsibilities and family drama and everything she did was for fun.

Pearl and the other gems never really realizing that is an interesting part of the story.

 

[LN 910]

Gay Tony. Guy cracks me up and he's relatable.